


Friends and Coders

by ProgramasaurusRex



Category: Silicon Valley (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-12
Updated: 2016-08-12
Packaged: 2018-08-08 06:08:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7746094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProgramasaurusRex/pseuds/ProgramasaurusRex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Richard, Dinesh, and Gilfoyle make up after their fight about Richard getting fired as CEO in 3x01</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends and Coders

**Author's Note:**

> Pick two or more characters and I'll write a friendship drabble about them.

Richard sheepishly opened the door to the Hacker Hostel, steeling himself for the humiliating conversation he was about to have. He'd burned some mighty big bridges the last time he'd seen Dinesh and Gilfoyle. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to glue back together the ashes of their working relationship, but he had to try.

Action Jack Barker had turned out to be a pretty decent guy. While chatting with his new CEO, a number of things had become clear to Richard. One was the necessity of coming to terms with one's own skill set in life and respecting the skill sets of others. Jack was a successful man with a long career behind him, but he had respected Richard's talent, spoken to him as an equal, and made it clear that they were in this together. This, Richard realized, was how a real leader behaved. 

He recalled the night when he had decided to form his own company. He had invited his roommates to join him more or less on a whim. They had agreed without a second thought. Maybe it was the dollar signs in their eyes, or the lack of potential in their own apps. Or maybe it had been because they'd been his friends. His video game playing, Tuesday night team trivia going, weary fellow travelers on the ridiculous rainbow road that was Palo Alto, California. 

Things were different now.

He found them by the pool in their customary lounge chairs. "Guys," he said. "I need to talk to you two."

Gilfoyle held up a hand. "Us first."

Richard nodded, taking a seat.

"We were wrong," said Gilfoyle, as if the words cost him something. "We can't scale the platform without you."

"If you're quitting, we're quitting," said Dinesh.

Richard snorted. "Really? Even after I was a total jerk to you?"

"You were," Gilfoyle agreed.

"We were, too, though," said Dinesh. "You didn't have to give us shares in Pied Piper. Without you I'd still be working on my chess app ... I guess I never really said thank you."

"Of course," said Richard. 

It was a little bit surreal, hearing this news. All day, Richard had been combing through memories of the past year with his trademark neurosis, wondering what had gone wrong. Although they'd never said it (too awkward, too risky, too rich for programmer blood) he'd always thought of Dinesh and Gilfoyle as friends. But something had shifted in Richard when his hand closed over that first check from Peter Gregory. He'd found himself committing all sorts of standard supervisor indignities against them that he never could have seen himself even trying before: kicking them out of the kitchen while he was having meetings, forcing them to conform to his style guide, scrum ... He remembered the night not too long ago when he'd walked in on Gilfoyle smoking a bowl with Carla and the other new programmers. He'd told Gilfoyle to get back to work.

But they were still here. For shares of stock, for the sunken value hypothesis, or maybe even the memory of an impossibly timid redhead who liked to play first person shooters with them. They had returned.

"So what's next?" Gilfoyle asked. "Can you put in a good word for us at Flutterbeam?"

Richard grinned. "Guys, this means a lot to me, really. But I'm not quitting."

Dinesh and Gilfoyle did a double take.

"I owe you an apology," he said. "Since the day I started this company, you two have been by my side. Even when money was tight, or we were getting sued, or the whole world hated us. I guess I just took you for granted, you know? Gilfoyle, you're an amazing engineer. I never would have had the balls to build a server room by myself from used parts, or steal my competition's login information right off their desk. And Dinesh, I think if you weren't here our front end would be one giant mass of spaghetti. When I read your code I actually feel like I'm at a real company."

"Yeah, well ..." said Dinesh, blushing.

"That's real nice," said Gilfoyle. "But we're never going to be you, Richard. If I keeled over tomorrow, someone else could do my job."

"You have a gift," Dinesh agreed. 

"Plus your functions were so obfuscated we couldn't read them," Gilfoyle agreed. "Could you maybe read a style manual or something?"

"I'll consider it," said Richard, laughing. "I am a college dropout after all."

"You were so young when you moved here," said Dinesh. "Remember when I had to buy you beer for the first few months because you didn't even have a fake ID?"

"Oh god, yeah!" said Richard. "That was ... Sometimes I miss those days. Everything was so much simpler. That's the one good thing about all this. Now I can just ..."

"Be a working stiff like us," said Gilfoyle. 

And Gilfoyle laughed at him because he had no idea. No idea how much Richard envied Dinesh and Gilfoyle sometimes, no worries in the world, eating cereal and talking shit and fighting about absolutely nothing and enjoying the effortless camaraderie of coworkers who aren't the boss.

Richard idly wondered what kind of CEO Gilfoyle would have made, if it had been him. More decisive for sure, bolder, better at reading people, but also not much good with the media, or the business side. He could have held Richard's respect in a way that Richard was sure he would never hold Gilfoyle's. Gilfoyle never would have let somebody else take his company, but there might not be a company left to take.

Dinesh would have been awful. If nothing else, Richard had that.

Now though, Richard was in a pretty good spot. He could still lead the team's technology, but he wouldn't have to worry about every little thing all day and night. And maybe, just maybe, now that the wall between them had fallen, he could get his friends back.

"Yeah," said Richard. "From now on, guys, we're in this together." 

"Together," Dinesh agreed.

The corners of Gilfoyle's mouth turned up. "Together."


End file.
